NTT INDYCAR SERIES News Conference

Thursday May 22, 2025

Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

KYLE LARSON – HendrickCars.com Arrow McLaren

Starts 19th

THE MODERATOR: Kyle, busy weekend ahead. You set, ready to go?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I’m excited about it. It’s obviously a really cool opportunity. I think the weather looks good so far. It changes every day at this point.

THE MODERATOR: We don’t need the pessimism. It’s looking good on Sunday.

KYLE LARSON: Yeah.

THE MODERATOR: Knock on wood.

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, we’re ready to go.

Q.  Kyle, I wanted to ask you, coming back this year, what is the biggest difference for you? Is it just kind of ease of getting around? Do you know how the flow is going to go, or is it something specifically on track you feel that much more comfortable? What is it like year two compared to year one?

KYLE LARSON: I don’t know. It’s been different a little bit. I feel like it’s obviously been a little more challenging with a couple of smaller crashes that we’ve had and then just having to work on the balance of the car more than we did last year.

I feel like last year we didn’t really have to mess with a whole lot. I thought the balance was pretty comfortable, but it’s just taken a little bit more time to get to that comfortable spot this year.

Happy with where we’re at now. Yeah, you know, just kind of focused on both of the races at this point.

Kyle, Josef Newgarden has a very fast car. He’s starting in the back. What do you expect to see? You’ve seen guys in NASCAR with fast cars come from the back through the field. You as a driver at mid-pack, what do you expect to see him be able to do? What does a driver like you also do to race your way up to the front?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I think it’s going to be really exciting for fans to watch Josef carve his way to the front. I think he’s definitely got a fast car, one of the most experienced drivers out there, bravest — one of the bravest guys out there too.

It will be tough to pick his way forward, but I think he’ll be able to execute his way to the front along with a good car. He’ll be great on restarts. He will execute good pit stops. It’s the unknown of if there’s an accident in front of him and stuff that he can’t avoid, things like that. He’ll have no problem getting his way to the front.

Q.  As far as you, there’s a lot of times the way NASCAR races play out you might get mid-pack and you race your way back to the front. How easy or difficult will that be to do that on this track?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, it’s not easy at any track and NASCAR either to drive your way to the front, but that’s where you have to rely on the people around you, your team, and the car that they’ve built and provided, your pit crew, your strategist.

You can’t just do it all on your own at this level. So, yeah, I think for any of us in the field, you have to rely on your team. That’s what we’ll be doing. That’s what everybody will be doing.

Q.  Kyle, I know the restarts were a little bit problematic last year for you. Is there anything you have been able to do with the team to working on that and prepare, or is that something you literally have to do in a race because you can’t really necessarily practice here to do stuff like that?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah. I mean, you don’t get the chance to practice restarts in practice, but yeah, I just had that one kind of mishap last year where I think I kind of hit the rev limiter right when I went to shift to second, and then it got me confused if it did shift, and I think I hit it again maybe or something and ended up in the wrong gear.

You know, I was able to kind of overcome that and had — I would say every restart after that was pretty good. We would gain a spot or three. It was honestly probably good for this year I think to go and have that bad restart and then you have to get aggressive on some others to learn for this year having to start from, I don’t know, row seven or wherever we’re at.

Yeah, I think it’s tough. You get a lot of laps throughout these couple of weeks, but there’s still more to learn during the race than practice. Just getting into the rhythm of all that is a challenge. But, I mean, there’s a lot of us out there that really don’t have that much experience racing on ovals for some of these guys. Specifically, the Indy 500.

Q.  Kyle, if I’m not mistaken, you didn’t really want to use your tools, like your weight jacker last year. This year you’ve got the hybrid in addition to that. How much have you been using that or messing with it? Do you think it will be a big thing for you during the race?

KYLE LARSON: Yeah, I have definitely gotten more — I think last year I was just scared to do anything. I think my balance was, like, in a happy spot last year, and I was like, I don’t want to go and — I didn’t know how sensitive everything was going to be.

This year, yeah, I’ve definitely played around with it a lot more. I feel like even last year I was afraid to do things in the short chute, moving bar. This year I’ve gotten way more comfortable with doing those things.

The hybrid is, I feel like, hyped up as being this crazy new thing, but it’s really not a big deal either, I don’t think. I don’t know what these guys think. But you just pull the paddle and go. When you want more charges, hit a button. It’s not really, like, a big deal.

Yeah, there is definitely more to the cockpits than what we’re used to all year long in NASCAR or sprint car racing, but yeah, I feel like I’ve gotten the hang of it more this time around.

Q.  Kyle, do you have anything to add? (about how the hybrid 

KYLE LARSON: No. To me it doesn’t really — like he just said, it doesn’t change the style of racing to me. So, yeah, it’s just kind of another button that you have that you have to do that probably doesn’t really affect much of anything anyway. Yeah.

Q. Kyle, do you have anything to add?

KYLE LARSON: No. To me it doesn’t really — like he just said, it doesn’t change the style of racing to me. So, yeah, it’s just kind of another button that you have that you have to do that probably doesn’t really affect much of anything anyway. Yeah.

Q. Kyle, the thing about it is you’re at an iconic speedway here. You’ve got a fellow New Zealander now in cut with you. Then you were a regular feature at Western Springs Speedway at New Zealand over the years. It’s sadly closed now. What’s a memory that you have of racing Down Under in New Zealand?

KYLE LARSON: I always love going to New Zealand. It’s probably some of the best racing memories that I have to this point, just getting to spend time down there with our Kiwi friends that have kind of turned into family and other Americans going there to race. Racing 15 minutes outside of Auckland with 15,000 people there for a dirt race was pretty crazy. The racing was always good. You had off days to spend as vacation going to Waiheke Island and going on wine tastings on your scooter, and all that was fun.

Yeah, I haven’t gotten to go since 2019 and ’20, so I’ve missed going there. I wish I could have got there for the final season, but yeah, it’s just unfortunate, but hopefully maybe someday it will reopen.